Finance director warns of uncertainty over state funding amounts

Fewer state dollars, and a lack of funds to maintain infrastructure and village facilities pose the biggest long-term challenges to Downers Grove's finances, local officials said.

Finance Director Judy Buttny said the village needed to prepare for the possibility that the state could change its policies for shared revenues and reduce how much local governments receive. Currently, the village gets about $15 million each year, and it is possible Downers Grove could see that pot shrink by more than $550,000 each year.

"As long as the state is experiencing a budget crisis, local municipalities are at risk," Buttny said during a planning meeting on June 18.

Officials have boosted the balance in the general fund to prepare for cuts. Some commissioners, though, wondered if the village might be over-preparing for an as-yet undefined problem.

"I would hate to see us spend a lot of time preparing for things that may or may not materialize," Commissioner Greg Hosé said. "Let's not spend hour after hour trying to figure out if this anvil falls from the sky, what do we do? Let's deal in fact, not speculation."

Village Manager David Fieldman said having a financial cushion was necessary but it was not meant to be a long-term solution.

"Staff is not recommending that we keep extra money around," Fieldman said. "We have other needs that have gone unaddressed for years."

That includes the maintenance of village-owned buildings. The village assessed the conditions of each building last year and found that Village Hall and the police station are outdated.

Deputy Village Manager Michael Baker said existing revenues will be devoted to maintaining the buildings in decent condition, namely the four fire stations and the public works building. The kinds of renovations necessary for Village Hall and the police station would be in the millions, Fieldman said.

Staff suggested the village could explore having a shared facility with other government agencies, tapping tax revenues or selling assets to generate the funding.

Commissioner David S. Olsen objected to the idea of using tax-increment financing dollars to help fund improvements, another suggestion from staff.

"I don't think that the reason we have a TIF is so we can build a government building along a commercial corridor," Olsen said.

Public Works Director Nan Newlon said more funding also is needed to maintain current conditions of the village's streets. She expects a $1.2 million shortfall in 2015 when the village uses up its funding from bonds issued last year.

Several road construction projects have been approved in recent months, part of what Newlon said is an effort to bring all village roads to "maintainable" condition by 2015, meaning that required repairs would include filling cracks, patching and resurfacing.

Without the additional funding, Newlon said, around 10 percent of streets would require total reconstruction by 2040, projects that cost four times that of regular maintenance.

Officials said the village could borrow another $20 million to $25 million to help fund the road improvements. This would be the last of three bond sales dating back to 2008 and originally intended for stormwater infrastructure projects.

Commissioner Bob Barnett said some of the strategies for both roads and buildings were not focused enough on lasting improvements.

"I think it would be bad policy and not a good long-range plan to have it in our heads that the solution to this is increased maintenance," Barnett said. "Progressive maintenance is not a good use of our funds beyond the very short term."

The next financial planning meeting is scheduled for July 23. A draft of the 2013-15 plan is scheduled to be presented and reviewed on Aug. 20.